Friday, April 26, 2013

Movie Review: Iron Man 3

By giving the keys of a massive
superhero franchise to writer-director Shane Black, Marvel have not just restored one’s faith in threequels but have
also proved that going ‘darker’ isn’t the only way to make the final chapter of
a trilogy. Result: Iron Man 3 is
bigger, funnier and more action packed than the previous two films put together.

Robert Downey Jr, at the top of
his game is back as Tony Stark, who is now battling post-traumatic stress
disorder after the events of The Avengers.
A mysterious fundamentalist terrorist who calls himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) has emerged,
wreaking havoc wherever he pleases. Also making an appearance are Botanist Maya
Hanson (Rebecca Hall) who also happens to be Stark’s former one night stand acquaintance,
and an ambitious, formerly crippled scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Right
from the opening scene set to Eiffel 65’s Blue Da Ba Dee it is clear that this
one is different from the previous two Iron
Man films. Jon Favreau took things a bit too seriously in part two and
Shane Black hurls the residual mess in the incinerator to bring in a swanky new
coat to the franchise. Film buffs are in for a gleeful ride as Black
embellishes Iron Man 3 with shades of
his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon when you least expect it. He
makes all the main characters in the film wear the Iron Man suit, his villains
are literally iron men and yet he drives home the themes of being cocooned in a
suit refined enough to remain in the backdrop rather than resorting to dark
brooding Dark Knight style.

Black’s greatest strength, however,
is that he understands that a superhero film should feel like a superhero film rather than making a half assed point
about humanizing the man behind the mask. There is a subplot featuring a Tony
Stark obsessed kid teaming up with Stark himself to kick some baddie butt, and with
this Black makes the film about his
fans. This could’ve gone horribly wrong like Shazaam or become a cheesy Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from the 90’s, but Black nails it perfectly. Johnny
Depp failed to make things interesting in POC
4 by repeating the same shtick of the first three films and it seems like
Downey Jr has taken note - he is as hilariously acerbic as ever but adds that subtle
extra layer of sensitivity that makes him an endlessly interesting watch. Don
Cheadle is the perfect Danny Glover to Downey’s Mel Gibson and an amusing
allusion to Hollywood shootout clichés is preceded by a cameo by Shane Black
himself.

There are plenty of problems, especially
in the second half. Guy Pearce is basically an extended version of Peter
Weyland in Prometheus and Rebecca
Hall’s role has less treatment or runtime than an item number – both characters
display inconsistency and were clearly given the axe in the cutting room to make
the film more about Stark. Also, one can’t help but wonder why Stark doesn’t
call his friends from SHIELD or the other Avengers to help him fight the bad
guy. It doesn’t matter because the goodies are plenty, biggest of which is Ben
Kingsley in one of the best roles of his career – he is absolute fun and even
in April he deserves to be handed the best villain of the year trophy – you’ll
have to watch the film to believe this.